"Matter" Creates Communication: The True Multimedia World - Yoichi Ochiai (Part 1)

"Going to Meet the People I Want to Meet!" Part 2: Takuya Fujita of Dentsu Inc. Event & Space Design Bureau met with Yoichi Ochiai, an Assistant Professor at the University of Tsukuba who is active as a media artist and researches various technologies. In his recent book, The Century of Magic, he argues that we are moving from the "Century of Images," where people share reality through media, to the "Century of Magic," where media itself becomes seamlessly integrated into the environment. What is the future vision of Professor Ochiai, often called a modern magician?

Interview & Editing: Aki Kanahara, Dentsu Inc. Event & Space Design Bureau

 

The fundamental meaning of three-dimensional imaging is the disappearance of the barrier between objects and images

Fujita: The world of advertising and communication is also in a transitional phase—or rather, I feel it's shifting precisely as Mr. Ochiai describes in his book, from the "century of images" to the "century of magic." That's why I requested this time today to hear from Mr. Ochiai and gain some insights.
What are you primarily researching these days?

Ochiai: Lately, I've been solely focused on extensions of holograms. The holograms I work with are true holograms, using the recording and reproduction of phase and intensity. Since conventional projectors are two-dimensional, roughly 90% of what's called holograms in the world aren't actually holograms. And I also act as a "hologram police officer," working on how to eradicate the 90% of people using the "non-hologram" kind (laughs).

What I'm working on is how to control waves three-dimensionally to match the target. Simply put, with a regular projector, when it's in focus, the same image appears along the light path, right? But to form an image three-dimensionally, for example, if you shine a beam from one side, normally the same image should appear. However, if you use two beams and define that this phase produces this image and that phase produces that image, you can form the light three-dimensionally.

Using this kind of technology, for example, if you create a hologram with sound, you can manipulate something with a tangible sense of substance. How to gather forces or light propagation in three dimensions is my current theme. When people hear "hologram," they only imagine images floating in mid-air.

Fujita: Right. Like Star Wars.

Twenty-five years later, we're precisely in that era. Essentially, in computer research, the focus of what you pursue is crucial. What I initially chose was how to break through the limitations imposed by human resolution for vision and hearing. The eye is limited to 60 Hz; in terms of resolution, 4K or 8K is thought to be sufficient. The ear can only hear up to 22.1 kHz.

Screens are two-dimensional, so to truly handle three-dimensional things, we need holographic wavefront synthesis and much greater intensity. Currently, we only have microwatt-level output, so it's still very weak energy-wise. But if we can generate stronger energy and increase temporal and spatial resolution, we could draw pictures in mid-air or move objects freely. Both use light and sound, so they're similar to what TVs do, but I find it fascinating that they exhibit more material-like behavior.

Fujita: It feels like human life is about to take a step up to the next level.

Ochiai: It's almost certain that computers will evolve toward materiality. As for when such multimedia developments will emerge in society, they come faster the more money you invest. I say it comes faster the more you invest. Visual media has been centered around TV-like image infrastructure for about 40 years, so figuring out how to create something different from that is a really interesting challenge.

 

Creating Tactile Sensation with Sound and Light

Ochiai: Lately, we've been working on "creating tactile sensations with light."

Fujita: So you can touch Tinker Bell?